Algerian Army Secures Complex; 23 Hostages Reported Dead

By

David Gauthier-Villars,

Cassel Bryan Low and

Leila Hatoum

Updated Jan. 20, 2013 5:12 a.m. ET

The Algerian army stormed a natural-gas complex deep in the Sahara desert Saturday, ending a lethal and often chaotic four-day siege by suspected Islamist militants that Algeria said left 23 hostages and 32 militants dead.

The episode has fueled concerns about the growing threat posed by North Africa-based terror groups. It gripped populations and world leaders from Washington to London to Tokyo because citizens from as many as 12 different nationalities were involved and, until late Saturday, little information seeped out of the deep desert.

Seven hostages, all foreigners, and 11 militants were killed in the final raid of the complex on Saturday, one Algerian government official said. The Algerian army launched the final assault when it believed militants had started to kill the remaining hostages, he said.

More Coverage

Algeria's Interior Ministry cautioned the death toll it announced late Saturday was still provisional. Algerian authorities did not disclose the nationality of the 23 hostage victims. The Algerians also indicated that a cache of weapons was recovered from the site, including machine guns, rifles, shotguns, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles, grenades and explosive belts.

Algerian television broadcast footage of several freed foreign hostages getting onto a bus at the In Amenas natural-gas plant. Photo/Video: AP.

By late Saturday, governments around the world were releasing grim statements indicating how many of their citizens were still unaccounted for after the siege's conclusion.

"One British citizen has already been killed in this brutal attack and we now fear the worst for the lives of five others who are not yet accounted for," U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement late Saturday. Other statements came from leaders in places like Norway and Colombia.

The oil companies that operate the site were also bracing for bad news. BPBP-1.88% PLC said 14 of its 18 expatriate workers at the site were safe, but Chief Executive Bob Dudley added: "Tragically, we have grave fears that we are likely to have suffered one or more fatalities."

In a statement issued by the White House, President Barack Obama called the attack "another reminder of the threat posed by al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups in North Africa" and said Washington will work "closely with all of our partners to combat the scourge of terrorism in the region."

He also sought to ease tension with the government of Algeria, whose initial military response to the hostage crisis and lack of coordination upset the White House and other governments.

U.S. Secretary of Defense and British Defense Minister Philip Hammond held a joint press conference in London on Sunday to provide updates on the Algeria hostage crisis. They reported that the situation had ended with more deaths. Photo: Getty.

"The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms," Mr. Obama said. "We have been in constant contact with Algerian officials and stand ready to provide whatever assistance they need in the aftermath of this attack."

The Algerian rescue mission—launched Thursday without prior consultation with Western leaders—is sure to be point of discussion in days to come. Some accounts from the scene have indicated that the rescue itself resulted in hostage deaths. It isn't known what prompted the Algerian military to move in without prior notice to other nations.

The Algerian government—which had ben virtually silent until late Saturday—has been emphasizing the number of lives saved in he mission.

An estimated 700 people worked at the In Amenas gas installation in southeast Algeria near the Libyan border. Some hostages were freed during a previous assault attempt by Algerian forces while others managed to escape. According to the Algerian Interior Ministry, 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners were freed during the course of the incident.

Earlier Saturday, speaking in London, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta vowed to go after the perpetrators of the Algerian attacks as well as Islamist militants fighting in Northern Mali.

Algerian television broadcast amateur video it said was filmed by a hostage freed in the standoff with Islamic extremists at the Ain Amenas gas plant in the Sahara desert. The video could not be independently verified. Video: A.P./Ennahar TV.

As of late Saturday, Algerian soldiers were still combing the site to search for explosives allegedly planted in the facility by militants.

"An important mine sweeping operation is underway" at the In Amenas plant, Algeria's state energy company Sonatrach told employees on Saturday in a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Sonatrach, which operates the In Amenas gas facility with U.K.'s BP PLC and Norway's Statoil ASA,STO-2.08% said the Algerian army found the plant had been mined after conducting the final assault, the memo said.

The final raid marks a bloody end to the siege by militants with suspected ties to al Qaeda's regional affiliate, who attacked the site at dawn on Wednesday, taking dozens of hostages from at least 12 different countries, including the U.K., U.S., Norway and Japan.

ENLARGE

Algerian gendarmes escort a freed Norwegian hostage at a police station in In Amenas on Saturday.
Reuters

Playing out deep in Algeria's desert, the drama focused international attention on al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, and related groups that have spread across a vast territory that encompasses parts of Mali, Algeria, Libya and Chad. The militants who claimed responsibility for seizing the Algeria complex said it was retaliation for France's decision to send combat troops to support neighboring Mali in its battle against an al Qaeda-backed insurgency.

Although the al Qaeda franchise remains nebulous, the mastermind behind the In Amenas attack has a name: Mokhtar Belmokhtar, according to Algerian officials and Western intelligence sources.

An Algerian national now about 40, Mr. Belmokhtar first enrolled in an insurgency which sought to seize power and set up a radical Islamic government in the African country during a protracted, deadly war.

In late 2006, he and other Algerian militants pledged allegiance to al Qaeda and started focusing on hitting Western targets in the Sahara desert. Criss-crossing borders between Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Libya and Niger, these insurgents have claimed responsibility for the killing of several Europeans.

Since France engaged troops in Mali, the al Qaeda militants have vowed to spread the conflict to neighboring nations.

Until last week, In Amenas appeared on maps as one of the many gas-processing facilities that dot Algeria's desert: a scenery of sand dunes interrupted by the occasional tall metal crane and chimney, where employees work round the clock in shifts.

But at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, a group of about 30 to 40 militants arrived at the plant's gate with pickup trucks.

Their first target was a police-escorted bus carrying 19 foreigners to the nearby airport; Their first victims were an Algerian and a British security guards, Algeria's Interior Ministry said.

Hostage Crises

Before dying of his wounds, the Algerian worker succeeded in activating the plant's anti-terror alarm, which at least one hostage—Frenchman Alexandre Berceaux—said gave him time to hide under his bed and emerge alive on Friday.

The militants splintered in two groups as they made their way into the industrial facility, according to several statements by employees.

One seized the base's living quarters, where Mr. Berceaux hid for 40 hours, and the other took control of the gas processing plant, half a mile away.

A Japanese hostage told the Yomiuri Shimbun that he locked himself in his room and turned the lights off, but militants shot through the door and took him away. The man was handcuffed and taken to a place with lights on where other foreign staff were being held. The militants were talking to some of the Algerian staff in Arabic. Immediately after their conversation stopped, two of the Algerians were suddenly shot dead right in front of the Japanese hostage. "I braced myself for death," he said.

Many time zones away, in Tokyo, the Japanese government was anxious because several of its nationals were present at the facility and urged Algerian authorities to give priority to saving the lives of civilians.

Algerian authorities quickly surrounded the base with tanks and Russian-made helicopters to ensure militants could not escape with hostages in the desert. They also made their position clear: "We won't respond to any claim by terrorists and refuse any negotiations," Algeria's Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said.

ENLARGE

An Algerian soldier Saturday at a checkpoint on the road to the Tiguentourine gas plant, near In Amenas, Algeria, where Islamist militants were holding workers hostage.
Reuters

The siege moved into a new phase on Thursday, when the Algerian helicopters opened fire on a column of pickup trucks driven by militants with hostages. The Algerian Interior Ministry said the militants were trying to escape into the desert, something the government could not tolerate. That episode caused chaos and casualties. For example, 36-year-old Stephen McFaul, an electrical engineer from Belfast, told his family that he was traveling in a convoy of five vehicles that was hit when Algerian forces tried to stop them, a family spokesman said. Mr. McFaul escaped, but he told family others weren't so lucky.

At the end of Friday, the situation remained unclear, with Algerian officials silent on the number of deaths, remaining hostages and the state of the rescue mission. Western government officials scrambled for information and hinted that they were not certain what was happening on the ground.

That began to change early Saturday afternoon, when reports of what the Algerians called a "final assault" filtered out. By nightfall on Saturday, it was clear the siege had come to an end, as government officials like Mr. Cameron began to touch base with the Algerians. Saturday evening, the Algerian government released its provisional death toll.

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